Doctor X
Smash Lord
So Overswarm, Quivo and I had a conversation a couple weeks back about a general "skeleton" or "style" of play that OS had been sharing with people on the ROB boards. He had taken a good long look at his videos, focusing on the times he took damage as compared to the times where he didn't, analyzing the effects of stale move degeneration, killing percents, and player patterns. From this, he created what he believed to be the most efficient way of utilizing ROB's moveset-- dividing his game up into what he called "stages" that revolve around his opponent's percentage, and these "stages" help him focus on what moves to use and when in order to have the greatest chance of winning.
Some of the players around my area and I have begun trying out this same approach with other characters, and honestly I think it could become a true revolution in how people think about Brawl singles.
The basic idea is that, because of the stale move degeneration, people are already playing in "phases" (OS called them "stages," but I'm using a different term so as not to confuse it with actual stages like Battlefield or Smashville) . You probably don't think of it this way, but almost anybody who's decent at Brawl has at least two phases-- "damage," and "kill." During the damage phase, you designate at least one move as a "kill" move, and you avoid using it so that once you get past the damage phase, it's at full power for the "kill" phase.
A simple example for Pit would be the back-air. If you watch a good Pit play, you'll see this move much more often at higher percents-- the "kill" phase-- than you will at lower percents-- the "damage" phase. Pits who just throw it out whenever the hell they feel like it often have a much more difficult time scoring kills, unless they use a different move to score them in which case that move is the designated "kill" move and bair is more of a "damage" move.
I order to play even more efficiently, wouldn't it make sense to apply this same kind of classification to your entire moveset? If we were to do that, though, would only two classifications really make sense? I mean, sure... "kill" is pretty straightforward. You just want a lot of knockback at a good angle. "Damage," however, is quite broad. Sometimes you want a lot of knockback since it gets your opponent away from you so you can stay in control of the match. Other times, less knockback is good, because with only a little bit of knockback you can easily chain a lot of moves together to rack up far more damage than you ever could with one single move.
If you watch a lot of videos with this in mind, you might start to see that this two-phase approach can have a pretty hard time either at low or middle percents. It has trouble with low because sometimes the player throws a move that has too much knockback to lead into anything else (most of Pit's throws) and gets punished if he tries to pursue it. It has trouble with middle percents because, occasionally, the player throws a move that would easily lead into another at low percents (Pit's dtilt), but because of the higher knockback from damage he gets punished for trying to follow it.
Add to the mix how the two-phase approach doesn't factor in how moves thrown at low percents might be recharged by the time the "kill" phase is reached, allowing them to be valuable both in the "damage" phase and the "kill" phase, and you may be beginning to see how creating a more robust playstyle could make much more efficient use of your character.
The answer? The Three-Phase approach, which works like this:
Phase 1: Combos/Chains:
For most characters, this is the most aggressive of the three phases, and it's generally used between 0% and 50%, adjusted of course by the weight of your opponent's character and many other factors. The object is to land low-knockback moves and lead them into the most damaging chains you possibly can. High-knockback moves can be useful, however, since they make great finishers for any chain. They get your opponent far enough away where they can't easily retaliate when you stop hitting them. Some of these high-knockback moves can be re-used again in Phase 3, since you'll have all of phase 2 to recharge them.
Phase 2: Control
This is easily the most defensive phase and it's used between 50% and 100% as a rule of thumb. The main thing to remember is that, because your opponent goes so far from you and comes out of hitstun so easily, almost any move you land is just that one move and nothing else. Play conservatively-- the chains you use in Phase 1 will not work, so don't try them. Focus instead on using individual moves that deal a lot of damage on their own and/or don't leave you open to retaliation. Avoid using any Phase 3 moves, because you want to keep those fresh. If you're playing a character who can projectile camp, this is the best time to do it.
Phase 3: Kill
Pretty straightforward. Your opponent is at a high enough percent-- usually above 100%-- so you try to land your kill moves. If your kill moves are shielded or you land them without killing, switch to another one if you can. You don't want to be aggressive, usually, because your opponent will easily read it, but if you're too defensive you'll miss lots of opportunities. Most decent Brawl players already use this phase, so most of you should be familiar with the idea by now.
...
Okay... so now that I've explained all that, let's start talking about how this applies to Pit specifically... which I'll be doing in the following post. Kupo, Kown, Ryanarius, and myself, with a little input from FZeroX, decided to talk in depth about each move and how it can be useful in each phase. In the following post will be a list of "recommended moves" for each phase. These are by no means the only moves you should be using, but you will want to keep them in mind since they will be the most useful for accomplishing the goal of the phase.
Also included for some phases will be a list of moves to avoid. If you want to remain efficient, do not use these moves during that phase under any circumstances... unless of course using said move would be a guaranteed kill (charging a dsmash against a broken shield during the later parts of Phase 2, for example).
Some of the players around my area and I have begun trying out this same approach with other characters, and honestly I think it could become a true revolution in how people think about Brawl singles.
The basic idea is that, because of the stale move degeneration, people are already playing in "phases" (OS called them "stages," but I'm using a different term so as not to confuse it with actual stages like Battlefield or Smashville) . You probably don't think of it this way, but almost anybody who's decent at Brawl has at least two phases-- "damage," and "kill." During the damage phase, you designate at least one move as a "kill" move, and you avoid using it so that once you get past the damage phase, it's at full power for the "kill" phase.
A simple example for Pit would be the back-air. If you watch a good Pit play, you'll see this move much more often at higher percents-- the "kill" phase-- than you will at lower percents-- the "damage" phase. Pits who just throw it out whenever the hell they feel like it often have a much more difficult time scoring kills, unless they use a different move to score them in which case that move is the designated "kill" move and bair is more of a "damage" move.
I order to play even more efficiently, wouldn't it make sense to apply this same kind of classification to your entire moveset? If we were to do that, though, would only two classifications really make sense? I mean, sure... "kill" is pretty straightforward. You just want a lot of knockback at a good angle. "Damage," however, is quite broad. Sometimes you want a lot of knockback since it gets your opponent away from you so you can stay in control of the match. Other times, less knockback is good, because with only a little bit of knockback you can easily chain a lot of moves together to rack up far more damage than you ever could with one single move.
If you watch a lot of videos with this in mind, you might start to see that this two-phase approach can have a pretty hard time either at low or middle percents. It has trouble with low because sometimes the player throws a move that has too much knockback to lead into anything else (most of Pit's throws) and gets punished if he tries to pursue it. It has trouble with middle percents because, occasionally, the player throws a move that would easily lead into another at low percents (Pit's dtilt), but because of the higher knockback from damage he gets punished for trying to follow it.
Add to the mix how the two-phase approach doesn't factor in how moves thrown at low percents might be recharged by the time the "kill" phase is reached, allowing them to be valuable both in the "damage" phase and the "kill" phase, and you may be beginning to see how creating a more robust playstyle could make much more efficient use of your character.
The answer? The Three-Phase approach, which works like this:
Phase 1: Combos/Chains:
For most characters, this is the most aggressive of the three phases, and it's generally used between 0% and 50%, adjusted of course by the weight of your opponent's character and many other factors. The object is to land low-knockback moves and lead them into the most damaging chains you possibly can. High-knockback moves can be useful, however, since they make great finishers for any chain. They get your opponent far enough away where they can't easily retaliate when you stop hitting them. Some of these high-knockback moves can be re-used again in Phase 3, since you'll have all of phase 2 to recharge them.
Phase 2: Control
This is easily the most defensive phase and it's used between 50% and 100% as a rule of thumb. The main thing to remember is that, because your opponent goes so far from you and comes out of hitstun so easily, almost any move you land is just that one move and nothing else. Play conservatively-- the chains you use in Phase 1 will not work, so don't try them. Focus instead on using individual moves that deal a lot of damage on their own and/or don't leave you open to retaliation. Avoid using any Phase 3 moves, because you want to keep those fresh. If you're playing a character who can projectile camp, this is the best time to do it.
Phase 3: Kill
Pretty straightforward. Your opponent is at a high enough percent-- usually above 100%-- so you try to land your kill moves. If your kill moves are shielded or you land them without killing, switch to another one if you can. You don't want to be aggressive, usually, because your opponent will easily read it, but if you're too defensive you'll miss lots of opportunities. Most decent Brawl players already use this phase, so most of you should be familiar with the idea by now.
...
Okay... so now that I've explained all that, let's start talking about how this applies to Pit specifically... which I'll be doing in the following post. Kupo, Kown, Ryanarius, and myself, with a little input from FZeroX, decided to talk in depth about each move and how it can be useful in each phase. In the following post will be a list of "recommended moves" for each phase. These are by no means the only moves you should be using, but you will want to keep them in mind since they will be the most useful for accomplishing the goal of the phase.
Also included for some phases will be a list of moves to avoid. If you want to remain efficient, do not use these moves during that phase under any circumstances... unless of course using said move would be a guaranteed kill (charging a dsmash against a broken shield during the later parts of Phase 2, for example).
but I do see myself using a strat much like this however I think my stage 2 is to short now that the idea is out there I should make it longer alittle.
